April 14, 2012Patrick Uses Bad Breaker, Late Yellow and Angry Driving to Finish 8th at Texas

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A bad electrical breaker and some oil on the race track brought some good luck to Danica Patrick on Friday the 13th at Texas Motor Speedway.

Fortunate yellows combined with a late tire gamble by crew chief Tony Eury Jr. and some driving angry from Patrick helped her advance from 20th to 8th in the last 50 laps of Friday night's NASCAR Nationwide race.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won the race that came down to a six-lap trophy dash after a blown engine brought out a yellow late. Stenhouse passed Austin Dillon for the lead with 23 to go, then overtook Denny Hamlin on the first lap of the final restart. The top five at the finish were Stenhouse, Paul Menard, Kasey Kahne, Hamlin and Dillon. The win was Roush Fenway Racing's fourth consecutive victory at Texas Motor Speedway.

Patrick drove from her starting position of P17 to P8 in part by “getting a little ####” as her spotter Rick Carelli put it on Patrick's in-car radio. Fans could listen to radio transmissions from any driver to his or her pit crew thanks to a free online service provided by series sponsor Nationwide Insurance.

Carelli is a former racer and Regan Smith’s spotter in NASCAR Cup. He also spotted for Patrick at Bristol. Running around P15 most of the race, Patrick blamed herself for a slow green-flag pit stop that caused her to be lapped late in the race. She charged after the leader, remaining in the Lucky Dog position (first car a lap down) for multiple laps. “I was a little frickin' mad when the leader went by me then I was abusing the car a little bit,” Patrick told Carelli on her radio during a late yellow.

By focusing the rage Danica manage to hold onto that Lucky Dog spot long enough for a bank of lights on the inside of turn three to go dark for the second time during the race. The lighting failure brought out the yellow on lap 163 of 200, which put Patrick back on the lead lap. “Oh, amen!” said Danica on her radio.

With Patrick back on the lead lap and the entire field red flagged for about 10 minutes as track wrokers replaced a breaker switch in the lighting system, Tony Eury Jr. decided to gamble that there would be at least one more yellow. With enough of fuel to make the race distance and Patrick restarting at the end of the longest line (but back on the lead lap) Eury elected not to pit for fresh tires.

He told Patrick via radio that saving the fresh tires to use during a later pit stop was a better bet than using them up coming up through the traffic at this point. Patrick’s job would be to pass numerous lapped cars on the restart and drive as far up the field as possible then hang on for a lucky yellow.

The strategy played out perfectly on lap 189 when an engine failure by Ryan Truex or Kurt Busch (they happened almost simultaneously) dropped oil on the track, bringing out the hoped-for yellow. “GOLD!” Patrick said when the yellow flew to which Eury responded "this is good; this is good." After pitting for new tires, Patrick emerged in P16 for what amounted to a six-lap trophy dash finish.

With fresh tires, some aggression and verbal encouragements from both Carelli ("elbows up!") and Eury, Patrick charged from 16th to 8th, including getting into the middle of a three-wide through a corner late. “#### yeah I was going to make it three-wide,” Patrick said on her radio after the race. Later she Tweeted "Good calls tonight, nice to have a solid finish for the @GoDaddy gang."

I listened to Danica's radio communication on Race Buddy. She doesn't really give a lot of feedback or talks at all during the green flag. It is mostly Tony Eury Jr pumping her up. After a caution came out when she got the free pass, Eury Jr said she was driving hard, she responded that "I was #### off." Tony Eury Jr and her are a good fit, but I think she would run better if she can give some feedback.

I think it was here spotter talking to her pumping her up. She even tahnked him for lighting a fire under her. It was a good call by Eury Jr. She drove hard & made moves from the inside, he outside & even in the middle. I was really impressed with her spotter. BTW she restarted the last restart in p13. She was on the inside right behind Jr. who was p11.She was the highest finishing Jr. motorsports driver. I guess She & the 81 have had issues at another track, & the spotter reminds her how he drives her particularly. Dont know who the 81 is, but sounds like if you believe the spotter he races her differently than others. The finish of that race might be the 1st time I was impressed with her driving of a stock car. She does need work on heer pitstops. They said during that green flag stop sshe lost 9 seconds. Which I 1st thought I misheard them. Then I saw her go a lap down when before pitstops she wasnt close to being lapped. I assume must have been correct.She doesnt seem to be thaat Iceman type driver, but an emotional driver. So the good thing is the team understands her. They basically had her kick it & cruise til 50 laps to go (their plan) & then cut her loose. No one would last driving on high emotions an entire race. Stratergy worked out, & she was up on the wheel at the end. & she outdrove the cup driver in the same equipment.

She does need to improve on her pitstops. She loses way too much time. It's the way she enters is how she loses the most time. She is too scared of speeding on pit road.

Her spotter and crew chief were pumping her up. She is also building confidence. She has time to make this season a success and prove that she deserves to be a fulltime cup driver in 2013.

The 81 is Jason Bowles and former K&N west series champion who races for a family friend of mine (Randy MacDonald). Until last night I didn't know they were having issues. She moved him out of the way. She is getting this.

I'm reasonably certain Cole Whitt doesn't have a vagina, but unlike you, I'm enough of a gentleman that I don't feel compelled to go on his site and point that out, especially since it has absolutely nothing to do with his 13th place finish last Friday evening. Just thought I'd point that out. I do however, feel compelled to respond to ridiculously idiotic and offensive remarks on here.

futura64 wrote:I'm reasonably certain Cole Whitt doesn't have a vagina, but unlike you, I'm enough of a gentleman that I don't feel compelled to go on his site and point that out, especially since it has absolutely nothing to do with his 13th place finish last Friday evening. Just thought I'd point that out. I do however, feel compelled to respond to ridiculously idiotic and offensive remarks on here.

The gentleman thing just went out the window as for both of us it appears. Sorry if you took offense to my comment,i follow the IRL and i don't see Danica any better here than when she was there.Cole Whitt gets NO attention while Danica gets ALL the attention,there's women who have won championships in auto racing that never got near the attention Danica does.BTW,i think someones avatar pretty much sums it up as i was saying,not seen in racing uniform as many other pictures i've seen on here of Danica.

Danica's popularity is warranted. She is probably the most known athlete in the world right now, everyone is talking about her. She didn't ask for it. Cole Whitt should be out performing her. He has more stockcar experience then her. She is still learning. She did manage to beat Whitt and Jr on friday. Jr's cars right now aren't where they should be. The only thing that was wrong was that Johanna Long qualified better then her and they gave her (a snowball derby winner) no love.

Smokeshow14 wrote:Danica's popularity is warranted. She is probably the most known athlete in the world right now, everyone is talking about her. She didn't ask for it. Cole Whitt should be out performing her. He has more stockcar experience then her. She is still learning. She did manage to beat Whitt and Jr on friday. Jr's cars right now aren't where they should be. The only thing that was wrong was that Johanna Long qualified better then her and they gave her (a snowball derby winner) no love.

As long as Long races for a tiny team, they will never acknowledge her. It is impossible for her to get the finishes to get noticed on that team. She is still young enough though to work her way up to the better teams, but this is how media politics are nowadays.